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Man Arrested For RuneScape MMORPG Online Robbery

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the doing-pretend-work-for-pretend-boots dept.

Unexpof writes "A man has been arrested by the British Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), accused of stealing the usernames and passwords from players of the RuneScape MMORPG. Security experts report that this is one of the first occasions when a Brit has been apprehended for 'virtual robbery,' although incidents have happened in the past. For instance, the CEO of the sci-fi trading game EVE Online stole 200 billion 'kredits,' which he then used as a deposit on a real-world house, and in October last year a Japanese woman was arrested by police after allegedly hacking her virtual husband 'to death.'"

9 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Poster has it wrong... by Trracer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uhm, it was not the CEO for CCP (makers of Eve Online) who stole isk (not "kredits") to buy a house. It was a CEO of a player-run banking corporation. Ingame Eve corporations are like clans, so there's a BIG difference.

    --
    English is not my first language, so cut me some slack -: Om du kan lasa det har sa kan du Svenska :-
    1. Re:Poster has it wrong... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      this needs to be moded up. EVE's 'dollar' is the isk and the guilds are 'corporations' in EVE. CCP is the maker of the game EVE... so it's entirely likely the poster might have mistaken the EVE online situation.

      More over, CCP hired a nobel prise winner for economics to manage the market in the EVE online game so I find the idea that the CEO of CCP somehow stealing from his company and buying a house a little suspect, especially given the lack of links to prove that.

      I would include links myself to further this information but i cannot from this location, as i post this.

    2. Re:Poster has it wrong... by NightRain · · Score: 3, Informative

      The reference to buying a house comes from the fact that Ricdic, the CEO of said (in game) bank that was stolen from, converted the isk he stole to real money via Real Money Trading. This part, whilst not hacking, was against the EULA of the game, and got his account banned.

      His stated reason for going the RMT route was a sick child, and a mortgage debt...

  2. user credential theft is not a virtual robbery. by Nickodeemus · · Score: 5, Informative

    someone needs to get a clue. stealing and using or selling a users credentials is not a virtual theft. virtual theft is stealing the users stuff inside the game. stealing thier credentials to get into the game is the same as stealing their credentials for thier bank account or for their computer. Using said stolen credentials amounts to unlawful access at the very least.

  3. Not Eve Online, Eve Bank by Amezick · · Score: 5, Informative

    The CEO of Eve Bank stole the online cash. The CEO of CCP (maker of eve) had nothing to do with this. Eve Bank is a player run financial institution inside the game. FACT CHECK!

  4. Incorrect Summary by d3ac0n · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is no "CEO" of Eve Online. Eve Online is a game produced by CCP of Iceland.

    There ARE Virtual CEO's of Virtual corporations within the Space-based MMO EVE Online.

    I am also not aware of any corp CEO that has used EVE-O ISK to buy a real world house. Somehow I doubt any bank would accept a virtual money as collateral on a real house. Of course, If a private party was that foolish, then hey, more power to the corp CEO. Nevertheless that sounds like a fake story.

    --
    Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
  5. Not virtual robbery... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try prosecution under the Misuse of Computers Act, specifically for unauthorised access to the accounts - which this fits perfectly. He stole and used usernames and passwords, nuff said.

  6. Re:The difference is by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not exactly the same as hacking someone's email account though, because if you do that you can potentially get hold of peoples bank/ebay etc accounts. I don't give a rat's arse about this or that game, and I'm a little annoyed about the idea of tax payer's money being wasted on non-crimes such as this.

    Well, I assume Runescape is paid for on a monthly payment and you're actually 'renting' something that the makers of Runescape technically own (if they have a ToS similar to WoW). We discussed this in August about whether or not virtual property should be under the same law as regular property.

    And really, you should be happy that your tax dollars are paying for this. The closest analogy I can think of is if you rented a moving truck and someone stole it from in front of your house and then anonymously returned it to the store at the end of your rental period. Now, you didn't get to move any of your stuff yet you were still charged for the truck. Basically you've entered into an agreement to use someone business's property in exchange for money and now a third party has not only obstructed that but prevented you from receiving use/enjoyment from your purchase. On a case by case basis, maybe not a big enough deal for $13 (or whatever Runescapes monthly payment is). On a mass scale (like this), call the authorities. The sad thing is that the emotional attachment and feelings of ownership that humans attach to accounts, items and characters are more than likely overlooked. And there's not a lot you can do about that, the law sticks to protecting things that are real and definite and measurable like your monthly payment.

    Now, if Runescape was a free game and there was no credit card information at risk then I would agree that the authorities should let the players appeal to the Runescape company to increase protection of their accounts.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  7. There was no arrest for virtual killing by bickle · · Score: 5, Informative

    "in October last year a Japanese woman was arrested by police after allegedly hacking her virtual husband "to death""

    Ok, let's get this corrected. There was no arrest for virtual murder. Repeat: There was no arrest for virtual murder. The woman was arrested for hacking into someone else's account. What she did in game is irrelevant and has just been repeated and twisted over and over for the sake of a sensationalistic "news" story.

    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/10/woman-arrested/